intake manifolds
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For starters, the castings it is made up from do not always line up perfectly. It is a good idea to open it up and clean up the flashing, and where the castings are over lapping.
Second, if it is a boosted application, the bottom plate is only held on with 10 screws. I have heard how the bottom plate will flex causing a nasty boost leak. I took the time to put an additional 21 screws in mine for a total of 31. Then I also sealed it with the silicone on both sides of the gasket. I was going to weld an aluminum plate on it, but figured, maybe I would want to get in there again some day for... something. I don't know what though.
Third, if you are using the stock water line/steam vents that run under the intake (LS1's don't have this, my LQ4 did), then this intake will not seat properly because it will try to crush the lines as you tighten it down. You either have to remove the steam vents and plug them, or you have to figure out another way other than having the hard tubing that runs underneath.
Last, If you are running ARP head studs, they did not cut holes in the gaskets to make room for the small head studs to clear the intake. I had to drill away some of my gasket in order for it to clear the head studs. You can see where my studs were digging into the gasket below. I also had to make sure each nut on the stud did not have a corner sticking up, creating a high spot. This meant turning some slightly more than others. The intake came with notches in it for these studs, but I'm not sure if they lined up very well or not. Either way, the gasket was definitely in the way.
All that being said, I have no actual experience on how the intake feels on the car. Even if mine was running right now, I would not be able to tell you a before and after, because I am STARTING with this one. So I have no before and after comparison. Sorry.
EDIT:
Oh, I also just remembered. The intake is obviously aluminum. People will say that it heat soaks (which is true) and that it will heat up your IATs. The amount of time the air spends in your intake manifold is fractions of a second. It is not going to heat the air up a lot. But yes, it will heat soak and yes TECHNICALLY it will heat the air up.